Report Bank Charges successes and failures

sambucac

The main thing to remember is, all banks have some sort of department to help if you are in financial difficulty, if you have not made them aware you are struggling, how are they meant to know?? this is why a lot of cases are being declined. not only this, but remember each and every one of you were issued with t&cs which made you aware of charges. its not always the bank's fault. people are making false claims of financial hardship and this is wasting the time of people who could be helping customers who are genuinely struggling!

abitignorant

Success and failure here:

Claim made against a loan from Lloyds TSB over 7 years ago. That was declined, however Lloyds (without asking) went ahead and checked my other loans, and stumped up for 3 of 4 loans that I had originally taken out which them (which I forgot about). Unfortunately I am a high rate tax payer and the cheques were made out to me. My wife is unemployed and it would have helped to have made them out to her, as I now have to pay the tax on the interest. But money back is money back!

Failures on mortgage ppi from countrywide and Halifax. Pretty sure that we had ppi with countrywide but no proof.

Finally.. My success with Lloyds proves that you can receive money back from the bank with the BARE minimum of information to hand.

MWES

I receive an email whenever I am to go overdrawn with RBS. It is called and "Act Now Alert" and gives the impression that you are about to go overdrawn and by "acting now" by paying into your account your will avoid the issue.
NOT TRUE.
Religiously I pay in immediately I receive the email and rely on this email to keep me informed. However, I have noticed that I still get charged for a days unauthorised overdraft. It seems that the email is only intended to "minimise" your charges and not to avoid them so the email is actually sent the day after you are overdrawn. I spent an hour today on the phone to RBS and they agree it is wrong not to be advised on the day rather than the day after. After all they know when you are going overdrawn before you do so why can the email not be sent on the day rather than the day after. Simple, they don't want to avoid charging you.They say that they will forward the matter for review but personally I doubt anything will change.
Strange though that Nat West also use the same software but their Act Now arrives on the day in question and if you pay in or transfer before 12 then you avoid any charges.
How many people are charged £6 a month and don't bother to follow it up because it is a small amount.?
How many million people have an account where this is happening.?

exstudent11

Bank: Lloyds TSB
Amount reclaimed - bank charges £1965 since six years ago.
- current account fees £213
- overdraft interest £53.51
- goodwill payment requested to put towards credit card.

I am claiming the usual amount on unfair bank charges. I was a student during university and bank charges continually tipped me over my overdraft limit.
My main issue was when I was invited into the bank whilst in my first year, where the advisor offered me an account upgrade to a current account. They did not explain that a student account was more appropriate for my needs at the time, and this had the option of an interest free overdraft.

I had the current account and paid my fees and overdraft interest for three years when I was offered another upgrade to a student account. Further, the current account had the ,benefit, of a credit card with an extremely high credit limit, which i took and spent significantly on without realising the repercussions of doing so.

I have urged the bank to pay my current fees off, overdraft charge and provide a goodwill payment towards paying off my credit card. I allege that the whole package was deliberately mis-sold to me on the basis that my options were not fully explained to me at this meeting and I was given an account that was completely inappropriate for my needs at the time.

I will update this page on any correspondence received by my bank but I have threatened to doggedly pursue the above claims.

Any thoughts?

priory4jz

priory4jz wrote: »

I have today made a call to Barclays bank, as I am a student midwife with a monthly income (NHS bursary) of £290.00, my finances have been getting worse every month, my income could cover my bills, but not my charges as well, at the moment I am only managing to afford food and bank charges (not bills), I am not managing this very well. I called and spoke to a telephone banking manager who very strongly informed me that when the arguement went to court over charges, it went in the banks favour and therefor not a penny will be paid back to me. I was very upset on the phone, but she informed me to organise my debt better and wished me a mery christmas :mad:.
So I have adapted the template and added in bank statements with highlighted charges for the last 12 months, from January £1104.00 - my finances were fine before becoming a student. I think I hit almost everyone of the 'financial hardship' criterea. I am just really worried following the response on the phone that this will make no difference. I can't figure out from the relevant pages, probably because I am in such a tizz, what other evidence it would be worth me sending in to the bank. Also, do I send it into my local branch and do I direct it to a specific department ?

Many thanks for any help given

Sarah x

Quick update on my claim, Barclays phoned me the following week and offered me £220.00 - this is to cover £120 of charges due out in January, I accepted over the phone but was told to sign the form in the post and the money would be refunded. However, having read further about getting them to negotiate a settlement, I wrote back declining the offer and asking for the figure to be closer to £500 as my claim is for £1104.00, but have today had a letter back telling the figure is non negotiable and to go to the FOS if I am still unsatisfied but basically that they will not budge on the £220. I feel deflated but am going to now sign the original agreement and take the £220, I don't see any other option now

priory4jz

sambucac wrote: »

The main thing to remember is, all banks have some sort of department to help if you are in financial difficulty, if you have not made them aware you are struggling, how are they meant to know?? this is why a lot of cases are being declined. not only this, but remember each and every one of you were issued with t&cs which made you aware of charges. its not always the bank's fault. people are making false claims of financial hardship and this is wasting the time of people who could be helping customers who are genuinely struggling!

This is what the bank are saying to me, I should have observed the T&C's, I can't argue it anymore, I am in financial hardship, but can't blame the bank for all of it, I just needed them to stop snowballing me with charges, have now taken off any overdraft facilities and reserves so if the money isn't there I dont risk getting charged on top of not paying the bills as well. The £220 will help me a bit with paying back outstanding charges, its better than nothing.

PetitMarlon

Update: SUCCESS!!! I got in touch with Sainsbury's Credit Card Services to contest charges made to my grandad's card since October 2012. Since that time £147.50 was charged to my g/dad's credit card account for non-payment of interest and bills. I had originally contacted the credit card company in December where I was advised that to get a final payment settlement I'd need to default a further 2 times in order to get the Recoveries Team involved. I asked for the interest and charges to be frozen whilst I arranged payment of the outstanding debt on the card. This was agreed with the customer services person. However, having read the cc statements I found that interest and charges had been added on November, December 2012 and January 2013. I called to complain on 30th Jan 2013. My first call I was told that they could not talk to me (I am designated as my g/dads Lasting Power of Attourney for his finances.) I had received a letter from Sainsbury's CC Services in November stating they recognised me as such and yet when I called them in January I was first told they will not discuss my grandad's account. Naturally, I was not happy with that and made it known to the client services person. Once I had ended the call (cordially), I then immediately dialled the number provided again. This time, I explained the situation and that I was the LPA for my gdad. After 45 minutes on the phone explaining that the account will be settled so long as the charges and interest for the last 3 months were taken off to account for the lack of communication the company had had with me despite my attempts to get in touch with them and the agreements in previous calls that such charges would be frozen. After a few exchanges between the client services clerk and her supervisor, I was advised that the charges had been taken off, leaving just the amount that was owed on the card due to purchases made on the card. In all this amounted to £147.50 (I mean the charges...the actual purchases were for more than this).
Lesson's learned for this are: a) get your finances organised, keep all letters and statements in order b) once a) is done start talking to your bank c) if during the calls you are not getting the outcome you deserve ask the company to provide you with details on how to contact the Financial Ombudsman to complaint about your case (I believe as part of the Banker's Code most companies have signed up to this and can give you the details. d) follow the advice given in MSE and use the templates - they do work. e) be persistant and patient.

This is the second time I've used advice given by MSE onsuch matters, and THEY WORK!
Best of luck.
PetitM

Animagdon

I wrote to Santander in December last year asking for a refund of the last 3yrs worth of bank charges and they initially wrote back and said not a chance. I sent another letter saying I disagreed with their decision and would they please reconsider and I received a letter back from them last night advising that as a goodwill gesture they were prepared to refund half of the charges and they will be in the bank account within the next 5-7 working days :j

Am going to write them another letter thanking them for the gesture but would they consider the full amount (a little bit cheeky but if you dont ask you dont get lol).

miss_r24

Bank name: HSBC
Amount Reclaimed: £583
Amount they paid: £250
The story: Wrote a letter on 17th January relating to overdraft charges from last year when I lost my job due to lack of capability and was claiming ESA. Received a letter today saying they will refund £250 as a gesture of goodwill.

waterboytom

I recently tried to reclaim some bank charges on the grounds I have some financial difficulties . which I originally tried claiming in 2007 but was put on hold by the courts.

I received a phone call from my bank followed by a letter saying that I couldn't claim on the grounds the courts ruled in favour of the banks in 2009 they went on to say the were sorry to hear of my difficulties how ever there charges were fair contrary but to assist me they have waved my overdraft fees and charges for the next 3 months.
they also went on to say as I expressed that I had financial difficulties and struggling to pay essential bills they looked in to my account and could see regular unessential spending (mobile phone) and ATM withdrawals and if I was unhappy with the out come I can provide more information or write to the ombudsman

has any one else had a similar reply or advise me on what to do next